to barack obama, from john kerry to john edwards, all of them, they all played for their plan with this simple phrase, "rolling back the bush tax cuts." they've been doing it for eight years. so politically, that's why the president has to draw that line in the sand. >> he draws that line in the sand, but harold ford, what happens when republicans, at least a small number of them, go ahead and raise taxes on the top 2% and then turn to the white house and say, okay. now we'll move. and then they have to talk about how they're going to slash spending in medicare, to save medicare, how they'll have to slash spending in medicaid to save medicaid. their political problem on the other side of this tax debate is so much bigger than the republican problem. they're being too clever by half here. >> both sides have complicated hands. and if the democrats, we achieve what the president and some democrats in the senate are asking for in a narrow way around taxes, you're absolutely right. just as an aside on the bush era, this is the first time we didn't go to war where we didn't pay for it. some o